August Bebel

Published:Severnaya PravdaNo. 6, August 8, 1913.

      Signed:V. I..

      Published according to theSevernaya Pravdatext.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1977,

      Moscow,Volume 19,

      pages295-301.Translated:The Late George HannaTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2004).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Withthe death of Bebel we lost not only the German Social-Democratic
leader who had the greatest influence among the working class, and was most
popular with the masses; in the course of his development and his political
activity, Bebel was the embodiment of a whole historical period in the life
of international as well as German Social-Democracy.

Twobig periods are to be distinguished in the history of international
Social-Democracy. The first period was that of the birth of socialist ideas
and the embryonic class struggle of the proletariat; a long and stubborn
struggle between extremely numerous socialist theories and sects. Socialism
was feeling its way, was seeking its true self. The class struggle of the
proletariat, which was only just be ginning to emerge as something
different from the common mass of the petty-bourgeois “people”, took the
shape of isolated outbursts, like the uprising of the Lyons weavers. The
working class was at that time also only feeling its way.

Thiswas the period of preparation and of the birth of Marxism, the
only socialist doctrine that has stood the test of history. The period
occupied approximately the first two-thirds of the last century and ended
with the complete victory of Marxism, the collapse (especially after the
Revolution of 1848) of all pre-Marxian forms of socialism, and the
separation of the working class from petty-bourgeois democracy and its
entry upon an independent historical path.

Thesecond period is that of the formation, growth and maturing of mass
socialist parties with a proletarian classcomposition. This period is characterised by the tremendous spread of
socialism, the unprecedented growth of all kinds of organisations of the
proletariat, and the all-round preparation of the proletariat in the most
varied fields for the fulfilment of its great historic mission. In recent
years a third period has been making its appearance, a period in which the
forces that have been prepared will achieve their goal in a series of
crises.

Himselfa worker, Bebel developed a socialist world outlook at the cost
of stubborn struggle; he devoted his wealth of energy entirely, withholding
nothing, to the cause of socialism; for several decades he marched shoulder
to shoulder with the growing and developing German proletariat and became
the most gifted parliamentarian in Europe, the most talented organiser and
tactician, the most influential leader of international Social-Democracy,
Social-Democracy hostile to reformism and opportunism.

Bebelwas born in Cologne on the Rhine on February 22, 1840, in the
poor family of a Prussian sergeant. He imbibed many barbarous prejudices
with his mother’s milk and later slowly but surely rid himself of them. The
population of the Rhineland was republican in temper in 1848–49, the
period of the bourgeois revolution in Germany. In the elementary school
only two boys, one of them Bebel, expressed monarchist sympathies and were
beaten up for it by their schoolfellows. “One beaten is worth two
unbeaten” is a Russian saying that freely translates the “moral” Bebel
him self drew when relating this episode of his childhood years in his
memoirs.

Thesixties of the last century brought a liberal “spring tide” to
Germany after long, weary years of counter-revolution, and there was a new
awakening of the mass working-class movement. Lassalle began his brilliant
but short-lived agitation. Bebel, by now a young turner’s apprentice,
hungrily devoured the liberal newspapers published by the old people who
had been active in the 1848 Revolution, and became an ardent participant in
workers’ educational associations. Having got rid of the prejudices of the
Prussian barracks, he had adopted liberal views and was struggling against
socialism.

Life,however, took its course and the young worker, through reading
Lassalle’s pamphlets, gradually found his way to Marx despite the
difficulties involved in getting to know Marx’s writings in a Germany that
had suffered the oppression of the counter-revolution for more than ten
years. The conditions of working-class life, the serious and conscientious
study of the social sciences, pushed Bebel towards socialism. He would have
arrived at socialism himself, but Liebknecht, who was fourteen years older
than Bebel and had just returned from exile in London, helped to accelerate
his development.

Eviltongues among Marx’s opponents were saying at that time that
Marx’s party consisted of three people—Marx, the head of the party, his
secretary Engels, and his “agent” Liebknecht. The unintelligent shunned
Liebknecht as the “agent” of exiles or foreigners, but Bebel found in
Liebknecht just what he wanted—living contact with the great work done by
Marx in 1848, contact with the party formed at that time, which, though
small, was genuinely proletarian, a living representative of Marxist views
and Marxist traditions. “There is something to be learnt from that man,
damn it!” the young turner Bebel is said to have remarked, speaking of
Liebknecht.

Inthe later sixties Bebel broke with the liberals, separated the
socialist section of the workers’ unions from the bourgeois-democratic
section and, together with Liebknecht, took his place in the front ranks of
the Eisenacher party, the party of Marxists that was to struggle for many
long years against the Lassalleans, the other working-class party.

Toput it briefly, the historical reason for the split in the German
socialist movement amounts to this. The question of the day was the
unification of Germany. Given the class relationships then obtaining, it
could have been effected in either of two ways—through a revolution, led
by the proletariat, to establish an all-German republic, or through
Prussian dynastic wars to strengthen the hegemony of the Prussian
landowners in a united Germany.

Lassaleand his followers, in view of the poor
chances for the proletarian and democratic way, pursued unstable tactics
and adapted themselves to the leadership of the Junker Bismarck. Their
mistake lay in diverting theworkers’ party on to the Bonapartist-state-socialist path. Bebel and
Liebknecht, on the other hand, consistently supported the democratic and
proletarian path and struggled against any concessions to Prussianism,
Bismarckism or nationalism.

Historyshowed that Bebel and Liebknecht were right,despiteGermany’s having been united in the Bismarckian way. It was only the
consistently democratic and revolutionary tactics of Bebel and Liebknecht,
only their “unyielding” attitude towards nationalism, only their
“intractability” in respect of the unification of Germany and her
renovation “from above”, that helped provide a sound basis for a
genuinely Social-Democratic workers’ party. And in those days the essential
thing was thebasisof the party.

Thatthe Lassalleans’ flirting with Bismarckism, or their
“accommodations” to it, did not harm the German working-class movement
was dueonlyto the very energetic, ruthlessly sharp rebuff dealt
to their intrigues by Bebel and Liebknecht.

Whenthe question was settled historically, five years after the
foundation of the German Empire, Bebel and Liebknecht were able to unite
the two workers’ parties and ensure the hegemony of Marxism in the united
party.

Assoon as the German parliament was set up, Bebel was elected to it,
although at the time he was still quite young—only twenty-seven years
old. The fundamentals of parliamentary tactics for German (and
international) Social-Democracy, tactics that never yield an inch to the
enemy, never miss the slightest opportunity to achieve even small
improvements for the workers and are at the same time implacable on
questions of principle and always directed to the accomplishment of the
final aim—the fundamentals of these tactics were elaborated by Bebel
himself or under his direct leadership and with his participation.

Germany,united in the Bismarckian way, renovated in the Prussian,
Junker way, responded to the successes of the workers’ party with the
Anti-Socialist Law. The legal conditions for the existence of the
working-class party were destroyed and the party was outlawed. Difficult
times were at hand. To persecution by the party’s enemies was addedan inner-party crisis—vacillation on the basic questions of tactics. At
first the opportunists came to the fore; they allowed themselves to be
frightened by the loss of the party’s legality, and the mournful song they
sang was that of rejecting full-blooded slogans and accusing themselves of
having gone much too far, etc. Incidentally, one of the representatives of
this opportunist trend, H\"ochberg, rendered financial aid to the party,
which was still weak and could not immediately find its feet.

Marxand Engels launched a fierce attack from London against
disgraceful opportunist shilly-shallying. Bebel showed himself to be a real
party leader. He recognised the danger in good time, understood the
correctness of the criticism by Marx and Engels and was able to direct the
party on to the path of implacable struggle. The illegal newspaperDer
Sozialdemokratwas established and was published first in Zurich and
then in London; It was delivered weekly in Germany and had as many as
10,000
subscribers.[1]Opportunist waverings were firmly stopped.

Anotherform of wavering was due to infatuation with D\"uhring at the
end of the seventies of the last century. For a short time Bebel also
shared that infatuation. D\"uhring’s supporters, the most outstanding of
which was Most, toyed with “Leftism” and very soon slid into
anarchism. Engels’s sharp, annihilating criticism of D\"uhring’s theories
met with disapproval in many party circles and at one congress it was even
proposed to close the columns of the central newspaper to that criticism.

Allthe viable socialist elements—headed, of course, by Bebel—soon
realised that the “new” theories were rotten to the core and broke away
from them and from all anarchist trends. Under the leadership of Bebel and
Liebknecht the party learned to combine illegal and legal work. When the
majority of the legally-existing Social-Democratic group in parliament
adopted an opportunist position on the famous question of votingforthe shipping subsidy, the illegalSozialdemokrat
opposedthe group and, after a battle four weeks long, proved
victorious.

TheAnti-Socialist Law was defeated in 1890 after having been in
operation for twelve years. A party crisis, very similar to that of the
mid-seventies, again occurred. Theopportunists under Vollmar, on the one hand, were prepared to take
advantage of legality to reject full-blooded slogans and implacable
tactics. The so-called “young ones”, on the other hand, were toying with
“Leftism”, drifting towards anarchism. Considerable credit is due to
Bebel and Liebknecht for offering the most resolute resistance to these
waverings and making the party crisis a short-lived and not very serious
one.

Aperiod of rapid growth set in for the party, growth in both breadth
and depth, in the development of the trade union, co-operative, educational
and other forms of organisation of the forces of the proletariat, as well
as their political organisation. It is impossible to assess the gigantic
practical work carried out in all these spheres by Bebel as a
parliamentarian, agitator and organiser. It was by this work that Bebel
earned his position as the undisputed and generally accepted leader of the
party, the one who was closest to the working-class masses and most popular
among them.

Thelast crisis in the German party in which Bebel took an active part
was that of the so-called Bernsteinism. At the very end of the last
century, Bernstein, formerly an orthodox Marxist, adopted purely reformist,
opportunist views. Attempts were made to turn the working-class party into
a petty-bourgeois party of social reforms. This new opportunism found many
supporters among the functionaries of the working-class movement and among
the intelligentsia.

Bebelexpressed the mood of the working-class masses and their firm
conviction that a fight should be put up for full-blooded slogans, when he
revolted with great vigour against this new opportunism. His speeches
against the opportunists at the congresses in Hanover and Dresden will long
remain as a model of the defence of Marxist views and of the struggle for
the truly socialist character of the workers’
party.[2]The period of preparation and the mustering of working-class
forces is in all countries a necessary stage in the development of the
world emancipation struggle of the proletariat, and nobody can compare with
August Bebel as a brilliant personification of the peculiarities and tasks
of that period. Himself a worker, he proved able tobreak his own road to sound socialist convictions and be came a model
workers’ leader, a representative and participant in the mass struggle of
the wage-slaves of capital for a better social system.

[1]DerSozialdemokrat(Social-Democrat)—the illegal
organ of the German Social-Democratic Party published from 1879 to 1890.

[2]Thespeeches referred to are “The Attack on the Fundamental Views and
Tactics of the Party” delivered at the Congress of the German
Social-Democratic Party in Hanover (October 9-14, 1899); “The Tactics of
the Party” and “Collaboration with the Bourgeois Press” delivered at the
Dresden Congress (September 13-20, 1903).